I loved this movie as a fan of major junior hockey. There were moments where I vicariously connected with young players in this movie. I feel that if you're a fan of hockey, this is absolutely a must-watch. In the media, athletes are commercialized. You'll either see them enjoying themselves or talking about their hardships while being glorified as a very important person in a very important organization.
The vicious struggle of these people is sometimes documented, but not as purely as in this film. There was hardly any (if any at all) directing in this film. The entire content of this movie is footage of real events that took place during important moments in this season and in these peoples' lives. Despite the entire documentary being about a hockey team, hardly any actual hockey playing is seen. I love this aspect, as it focuses entirely on the unfiltered personalities of these players.
My favourite scenes were the scenes featuring the deliberation of cutting R.J. Hand or not, the trade scene of Ryan Lehr, and the postgame meeting with Alex Lamontagne. Talk about raw emotion, oh my goodness.
Conceptually, this movie is a 10/10. Stylistically, it's a 10/10. The problems for me lie in the way this movie was presented. I am lucky to be (somewhat) bilingual, so I understood the majority of the Quebecois jargon without the subtitles. I read them anyway just so that I didn't risk misunderstanding certain expressions. One problem is insufficiently representative subtitles when translating from French to English. Words were omitted at times which made speech seem too formal if you were an anglophone reading subtitles without understanding any of the French dialogue going on.
Another problem is how depressing the locker room atmosphere was presented in this movie. I understand that the Drakkar finished 13th out of 18 teams. This is nothing to be happy about, but almost every scene seems to be grim. Everyone's frowning in a room full of 18-or-so year-old friends. Something isn't right here.
I felt as if the team as individuals were unfairly represented. The movie focuses on 5 or so players, in a team of 23. I'm sure there were stories to tell for many of the other players on the team that unfortunately didn't get told.
Finally, it was clear that the filmmakers could not be present throughout the whole season. This is totally understandable, but it was obvious throughout the movie. Scenes would have months' worth of gaps between them. We jumped from the preseason to a quarter way through without any clue as to what happened in between, then the trading period, then the end of the season. I obviously don't expect a film crew to abandon their other projects to solely work on this for 10 or so months, but this fact hurts the movie.
Despite my criticisms, they don't take away from the awe and purity of this movie. This is a wonderful documentary that I will recommend to my friends for the rest of my life.
The vicious struggle of these people is sometimes documented, but not as purely as in this film. There was hardly any (if any at all) directing in this film. The entire content of this movie is footage of real events that took place during important moments in this season and in these peoples' lives. Despite the entire documentary being about a hockey team, hardly any actual hockey playing is seen. I love this aspect, as it focuses entirely on the unfiltered personalities of these players.
My favourite scenes were the scenes featuring the deliberation of cutting R.J. Hand or not, the trade scene of Ryan Lehr, and the postgame meeting with Alex Lamontagne. Talk about raw emotion, oh my goodness.
Conceptually, this movie is a 10/10. Stylistically, it's a 10/10. The problems for me lie in the way this movie was presented. I am lucky to be (somewhat) bilingual, so I understood the majority of the Quebecois jargon without the subtitles. I read them anyway just so that I didn't risk misunderstanding certain expressions. One problem is insufficiently representative subtitles when translating from French to English. Words were omitted at times which made speech seem too formal if you were an anglophone reading subtitles without understanding any of the French dialogue going on.
Another problem is how depressing the locker room atmosphere was presented in this movie. I understand that the Drakkar finished 13th out of 18 teams. This is nothing to be happy about, but almost every scene seems to be grim. Everyone's frowning in a room full of 18-or-so year-old friends. Something isn't right here.
I felt as if the team as individuals were unfairly represented. The movie focuses on 5 or so players, in a team of 23. I'm sure there were stories to tell for many of the other players on the team that unfortunately didn't get told.
Finally, it was clear that the filmmakers could not be present throughout the whole season. This is totally understandable, but it was obvious throughout the movie. Scenes would have months' worth of gaps between them. We jumped from the preseason to a quarter way through without any clue as to what happened in between, then the trading period, then the end of the season. I obviously don't expect a film crew to abandon their other projects to solely work on this for 10 or so months, but this fact hurts the movie.
Despite my criticisms, they don't take away from the awe and purity of this movie. This is a wonderful documentary that I will recommend to my friends for the rest of my life.
